Display egg sprites in Cave if encyclopedia is already filled?

[Nakti]

I support any realization of that.

 

The question mark egg is almost never a surprise - the description is right there, although it only helps more experienced players, as newer ones have 200+ different lines to memorize from the scratch.

 

Having the sprite unlocked with encyclopedia might also help new players in some way: if you see a question mark egg, grab it, it's unique.

 

The only downside would be slow loading.

[Fuzzbucket]

And slow loading is a killer. Players with awful WiFi, or even dialup will be horribly disadvantaged, even more than they already are. I remember those days. I used to turn off all images, even the ? egg, just to be able to play at all.

[Nakti]

But why are you so sure it will be much more significant than it already is?

[Brite]

As much as I'd like this, I agree it'd slow everything down. My computer is already slow enough, I can't imagine what it'd be like with this feature. 

[ryon_brink]

I'm also leaning toward negative on this one. If at all, I think it should be implemented as a change for everyone, not tied to the encyclopedia.

I appreciate the story concept that if you've seen/researched a species enough, you have an advantage at recognizing their eggs. However, as a gameplay mechanic I agree that it skews odds even more in favor of experienced players. Not least because the in-game encyclopedia is easily the most unintuitively hidden resource on the entire site that a new player might never actually find or engage with... (but that's a rant for a different suggestion topic 😅)

 

If implemented for everyone, I don't think it would significantly disadvantage new players compared to experienced ones. The ones that would benefit the most would probably be players who have some experience but never managed to become super snipers. Newbies still wouldn't know or care what to click on, and the super snipers have likely already maxed out their reaction times to where they don't actually read descriptions any more. At least that's what it always felt like for me when I had my phases of cave sniping for hours every day. But those medium-experienced players would know enough to focus on rares while benefitting from images generally being processed more quickly than writing.

However, as a purely personal preference, I wouldn't like having egg sprites revealed in the cave biomes. For one, several of the egg sprites look really similar to me in way that the descriptions don't unless they are intentionally identical. And I greatly enjoy the focus on written descriptions in the cave as well as gambling on ambiguous descriptions. It's very much a part of DC's unique atmosphere that I would miss if it was altered.

[Skadi]

Only against it for slow internet purposes, and as the OP has it implemented. Either mystery eggs for all or unlocked eggs for all, and I'm leaning towards mystery eggs due to loading times. I would love to see the eggs, but it might be too much on slow connections. 

 

I will note that descriptions heavily favor old members, though, so I'm not really against it because of "leaving out new members." If a new member and I see a gold at the same time, and I know the description, I will probably get the gold first. Especially because I am a cave hunter and have many descriptions memorized.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Skadi

[FuecocoBoi09]

I like this suggestion, but for dragons with alts (ie: only vespine drake) they should be half and half. 

[Diggie]

In general, I'm fairly neutral but leaning against as my WiFi is already pretty slow and it is noticeably more difficult to load the AP as opposed to the biomes (although I do not fully know if that is because of the number of eggs/information being loaded or the actual image--I would assume a combination of both). On top of that, while I don't think that such a change would hurt anyone's hunting, I do think that if it were to be implemented we should keep the descriptions underneath the eggs. This is because,

16 hours ago, ryon_brink said:

several of the egg sprites look really similar to me in way that the descriptions don't unless they are intentionally identical. 

 it can be difficult to tell the difference between eggs visually (looking at mints and canopies in particular here). 

 

However,

6 minutes ago, FuecocoBoi09 said:

I like this suggestion, but for dragons with alts (ie: only vespine drake) they should be half and half. 

This would be major a change to the ridgewing/dorsal/vespine alt mechanic (if I am understanding this right--the alts being just as common as the normal coloration?), which I would be against doing, particularly without spriter and conceptor approval.

[FuecocoBoi09]

6 minutes ago, Diggie said:

In general, I'm fairly neutral but leaning against as my WiFi is already pretty slow and it is noticeably more difficult to load the AP as opposed to the biomes (although I do not fully know if that is because of the number of eggs/information being loaded or the actual image--I would assume a combination of both). On top of that, while I don't think that such a change would hurt anyone's hunting, I do think that if it were to be implemented we should keep the descriptions underneath the eggs. This is because,

 it can be difficult to tell the difference between eggs visually (looking at mints and canopies in particular here). 

 

However,

This would be major a change to the ridgewing/dorsal/vespine alt mechanic (if I am understanding this right--the alts being just as common as the normal coloration?), which I would be against doing, particularly without spriter and conceptor approval.

No, I mean that it would be impossible to tell what variant you got until you picked up the egg. Keeping the lotto. By half and half I mean one side of the sprite is one color and the other side is the other.

[Diggie]

1 minute ago, FuecocoBoi09 said:

No, I mean that it would be impossible to tell what variant you got until you picked up the egg. Keeping the lotto. By half and half I mean one side of the sprite is one color and the other side is the other.

Ah, that makes sense! I wouldn't be against this per say, but it might be cause for confusion with newer players.

[purplehaze]

10 minutes ago, Diggie said:

I do think that if it were to be implemented we should keep the descriptions underneath the eggs. This is because

it can be difficult to tell the difference between eggs visually (looking at mints and canopies in particular here). 

This, for sure. There are some of the dark eggs that I have trouble distinguishing too when I see them in the AP.

[blah]

17 hours ago, ryon_brink said:

However, as a gameplay mechanic I agree that it skews odds even more in favor of experienced players. Not least because the in-game encyclopedia is easily the most unintuitively hidden resource on the entire site that a new player might never actually find or engage with...

I agree. Once you’ve unlocked something in the encyclopaedia and then also found the encyclopaedia - you don’t need the encyclopaedia anymore.

 

All in all I think this would change the game play and the feel of DC a lot and I’m not sure I think it’s worth it. 

[ricetheroni]

hard support on egg visibility, and i'd also prefer it to be encyclopedia based as it encourages people to fill it out (but wouldn't dislike it if this aspect was passed over). it takes time to memorize the visual appearance of the eggs, and i'm often looking them up anyways. i'm by no means a newbie, but i'm not exactly an older player. i'm kind of in the middle, and i like this idea >_<

Edited December 21, 2023 by ricetheroni

[dracornithologist]

As far as the descriptions favoring more experienced players. Don't all games favor more experienced players? If you do it for longer, you get better at it. In this specific game, players are already rewarded for playing longer over a period of time (getting more egg and hatchling space until you cap out, entering raffles more times so more likely to have prize dragons for trades, for example). The payout of the "advantage" of knowing the eggs better caps out as well, and will be skewed to more experienced players regardless of whether the eggs are visible or not.

Edited December 21, 2023 by dracornithologist

[jellystualy]

I'm leaning towards support on this ONLY if everyone can see the egg sprites to have that FFA aspect DragCave is built on. personally, my memory is awful and I've found myself struggling to remember dragon descriptions and I've been playing this game on-and-off for years. I still struggle remembering which description is which and keywords have been both a blessing and a curse (I don't wanna talk about the amount of times I've misclicked on an egg thinking it was something else 'cuz of its description), so personally if it were more visual-based it'd be a welcome change as that'd imply egg hunting based on visuals rather than descriptions which is, sorta, not something everyone is acquainted with (and as a returning player who frequents AP a lot in-between cave hunting I've struggled with processing eggs even visually and still do struggle sometimes).

 

realistically speaking I don't see any harm in implementing this feature as it benefits both new and old players (in my opinion); newbies get to learn eggs visually (which later helps with AP hunting) and old players can hunt for what they're acquainted with much easier.

 

so in other words: support if everyone can see the sprites, but no support if Encyclopedia-determined. that feels rudimentary imo to what should be otherwise a QoL thing and it definitely tilts the FFA aspect in an unfavorable direction for newbies, whereas if everyone can see the egg as it spawns then that's that and most likely wouldn't change much - people would still be as likely to either grab a rare or miss it as everyone will see it and everyone will try to react fast enough to yoink it in time which is basically exactly the same thing as it is now minus the visual aspect.

[inghelene]

A person with good reaction speed, internet, and, in times, the shortest distance to the server, will absolutely have an advantage when hunting in cave. 

Of these, the easiest thing to improve is your reaction speed.
By learning the text of the breed you want, and knowing just enough words to click, you can save a couple seconds.

With images, users have less room to improve their chances, and instead have to be lucky with activity and interest.

 

I also believe seeing the eggs will decrease the interest in the ap, considering how new users likely go there to pick up cool stuff.

 

All in all though, it should be considered if new users might be demotivated by picking unknown eggs over seeing the shiny sprites. Though I think this plays less of a role compared to just finding the site. 
 

That being said, I still would say yes to showing the eggs for all, since cb hunting generally is more rewarding if done casually, and by the time you need to stalk the cave, you are likely not alone anyway. And generally, time is the biggest investment to success. Time and luck.

Thus I’m leaning “support”, but with very neutral feelings.

 

As for encyclopaedia unlocking eggs; hard pass. It’s super beneficial for new players to pick what they don’t have, but the unlock is so easy they might accidentally unlock stuff they have before getting the egg. 
And if this causes longer load times, I’d rather say no to everything if this is the only option. 😂

[MoonShark]

I don't support this suggestion because I feel like it would be less fun for newer players if they could only see the plain outlines rather than the actual egg sprites. Why give people a disadvantage for being new, even if it's an easy unlock? It would be more enticing in my opinion if they could immediately see all the pretty colored eggs.

 

I do think eggs displaying the cave would solve some issues (for example, if the egg shows and you remove the description, more eggs could be fit into the same space and it might be easier to hunt what you want in relatively saturated biomes), and I would support that change as long as it wasn't locked behind something. In my opinion, it's easier for people to react to specific images than words, especially if they struggle with parsing the writing (whether from being ESL, dyslexic, or other reasons).

 

As for those arguing about loading time or the like--I don't think there would be any difference in load time. I play another collecting game that has the egg equivalent displaying in the cave equivalent, and it's never been an issue for me on any of the devices I've used.

[Fuzzbucket]

Actually - I find the descriptions far easier to remember than the images., I can't count the number of times I've picked up an egg in the AP and either got the wrong one because I forgot, or just did so to see what on earth it was.... PLEASE no way we should get rid of the cave descriptions. I don't support this anyway, for the reasons I have already given, but losing the descriptions would be a game breaker for me.

[Metafarers]

As a new player, STRONGLY against this idea. Learning how to hunt the caves and hunt for rares was so much fun, and rewarding. It stays both competitive AND accessible to newbies by keeping it description only. Putting the image up would make it so much easier for veterans to get all the rares that there would be no point in learning the egg descriptions. And it would be discouraging to newbies who want a certain kind of egg, but dont have the image unlocked, making it harder for them to ever get one. Not to mention, this puts more power to veteran players, making it easier for those that already have rares to get more of them. Not to mention it would completely ruin the fun of the honorable mingo, who tricks pink hunters in jungle and forest All in all, just... would add nothing positive to the game.

[ryon_brink]

On 12/21/2023 at 3:44 PM, MoonShark said:

In my opinion, it's easier for people to react to specific images than words, especially if they struggle with parsing the writing (whether from being ESL, dyslexic, or other reasons).

 

I definitely think this is a strong argument for including the true egg sprites. However, in terms of accessibility, it would be absolutely necessary to keep the description as well, as plenty of people struggle with image recognition/color discrimination. So I agree with Fuzzbucket, even if something like this was implemented, it should be an addition, not a replacement for the descriptions.